Something of Myself
Monday, May 24, 2004
Literature and Loneliness
Is great literature born out of loneliness? Think about it, to a certain extent the answer would be yes. Some writers even confine themselves in cells or go underground to bring out the creativity bursting their minds. Isolation, seclusion from the rest of the world including your dear ones allegedly helps to concentrate and put things into perspective. But isnt it strange that the inspiration and the material for that literature comes from the very world that one moves away from? After all no literature exists in vacuum!
I was thinking about the act of reading today too. That's another very subjective, isolated experience. What you feel and experience when you read this random gibberish on my blog is only experienced by you. If you happen to read a novel or a poem or a play then of course the dividends are richer but the experience is solitary. Or is it not - because the other side of the argument would be that the "author" is actually there with you, present at a fictitious level, guiding you through the labyrinth that he has created for you. If the author happens to be a woman, chances are that you will get lost and then find yourself again: rejuvenated! Naah, just kidding...
There are stories that Dickens use to lock himself up in his study when he was composing the masterpieces that we still cherish today. He had apart from books, a single mirror in his study. He use to write a small amount, leave his desk, stood in front of the mirror and used to make funny faces to himself. I wonder why. Was it because he wanted to feel that there was somebody, an "other" physically there with him too? Or was it his way of taking (what we would call today) a break?
Come to think of it, there are so many things in life that are solitary - for e.g. sleeping. You could sleep "with" somebody but then again once asleep you would be by yourself - not conscious of any company! Masturbation is another solitary experience. I look at it as a frustrated response to the lack of sexual company. I am not arguing that its abnormal or something but its done in exclusion, until of course you are a lesbian or perhaps if you are getting a handjob, but then again it wouldnt qualify as masturbation, would it?
From literature to loneliness to masturbation. Nice. In my own words - fucked up! But hey who cares? Life is fucked up too. But we got to live it, try our best to do the utmost that we can for this life that we have and end it with some sense of contentment. Happiness is hard to find until of course you happen to be one of those elevated thinkers who find it in the presence of the ordinary. Most of us look for it in some kind of a idealised way and often fall short of it. Triumph is hard to maintain. So if I am contended with my life when I die (which is a virtual impossibility given my insatiable quest for everything) I'll consider it to be a job well done!
Chameli would have said on my present state of thoughts: life aisa hi hain sahab!
Is love solitary btw? I mean you fall in love "with" somebody, love has an object to be loved but is the experience solitary? I think it is cause when you feel a million butterflies buzzing in your stomach at the prospect of your first date, only you can hear the buzzing, nobody else. Similarly, when you are cheated upon, only you can hear the cracks which begin to split your heart apart. Why does everything in life (specially what we call it good) need to be solitary? Or is it just my insane way of looking at things cause I am in a country where I feel lonely? Not the latter I would imagine cause I dont feel lonely when I am in a place like London. You simply cant ignore the teeming millions. Of them one, at least one will have an impression on you and will touch you from your inside (that's a Morrison phrase btw - "I want you to touch me on my inside part and call me Beloved).
Is great literature born out of loneliness? Think about it, to a certain extent the answer would be yes. Some writers even confine themselves in cells or go underground to bring out the creativity bursting their minds. Isolation, seclusion from the rest of the world including your dear ones allegedly helps to concentrate and put things into perspective. But isnt it strange that the inspiration and the material for that literature comes from the very world that one moves away from? After all no literature exists in vacuum!
I was thinking about the act of reading today too. That's another very subjective, isolated experience. What you feel and experience when you read this random gibberish on my blog is only experienced by you. If you happen to read a novel or a poem or a play then of course the dividends are richer but the experience is solitary. Or is it not - because the other side of the argument would be that the "author" is actually there with you, present at a fictitious level, guiding you through the labyrinth that he has created for you. If the author happens to be a woman, chances are that you will get lost and then find yourself again: rejuvenated! Naah, just kidding...
There are stories that Dickens use to lock himself up in his study when he was composing the masterpieces that we still cherish today. He had apart from books, a single mirror in his study. He use to write a small amount, leave his desk, stood in front of the mirror and used to make funny faces to himself. I wonder why. Was it because he wanted to feel that there was somebody, an "other" physically there with him too? Or was it his way of taking (what we would call today) a break?
Come to think of it, there are so many things in life that are solitary - for e.g. sleeping. You could sleep "with" somebody but then again once asleep you would be by yourself - not conscious of any company! Masturbation is another solitary experience. I look at it as a frustrated response to the lack of sexual company. I am not arguing that its abnormal or something but its done in exclusion, until of course you are a lesbian or perhaps if you are getting a handjob, but then again it wouldnt qualify as masturbation, would it?
From literature to loneliness to masturbation. Nice. In my own words - fucked up! But hey who cares? Life is fucked up too. But we got to live it, try our best to do the utmost that we can for this life that we have and end it with some sense of contentment. Happiness is hard to find until of course you happen to be one of those elevated thinkers who find it in the presence of the ordinary. Most of us look for it in some kind of a idealised way and often fall short of it. Triumph is hard to maintain. So if I am contended with my life when I die (which is a virtual impossibility given my insatiable quest for everything) I'll consider it to be a job well done!
Chameli would have said on my present state of thoughts: life aisa hi hain sahab!
Is love solitary btw? I mean you fall in love "with" somebody, love has an object to be loved but is the experience solitary? I think it is cause when you feel a million butterflies buzzing in your stomach at the prospect of your first date, only you can hear the buzzing, nobody else. Similarly, when you are cheated upon, only you can hear the cracks which begin to split your heart apart. Why does everything in life (specially what we call it good) need to be solitary? Or is it just my insane way of looking at things cause I am in a country where I feel lonely? Not the latter I would imagine cause I dont feel lonely when I am in a place like London. You simply cant ignore the teeming millions. Of them one, at least one will have an impression on you and will touch you from your inside (that's a Morrison phrase btw - "I want you to touch me on my inside part and call me Beloved).
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